Oh, Canada — what words to use?

A merchant seaman salutes the flag, during the singing of "O Canada" at a citizenship hearing in Halifax.

Published on Sat Oct 05 2013

Re: Take gender back out of ‘O Canada,’ group says, Oct. 2

Re: Alan Pellettier, Scarborough

Take gender back out of ‘O Canada,’ group says, Oct. 2

If we are going to be “politically correct,” and we should, we should also address another line in our national anthem. The line “Our home and native land,” not only does not represent all residents of Canada, it is basically misleading.

Canada is truly “our home” to all permanent residents of this country, but it is not “our” native land. That designation belongs to the aboriginal people alone. The white man (sorry, white people) stole this land from the original inhabitants. Today, the word used would be “expropriated.”

To correct this major flaw, I think that this line should be: “Our home and (the) native’s land(s).” This would give long overdue recognition to the original inhabitants of Canada, and represent all permanent residents.

Warren Dalton, Scarborough

Putting aside this tiny but vocal and connected minority of self-important feminists, you’d think that halfway literate persons would understand that the term “sons” as used here is generic, not male-specific, and includes an entire citizenry — male, female, LGBT, whatever.

Rather than take “all thy sons” out of O Canada, we should take political correctness out of Canada and excise the much-abused word “inclusivity.” What we have here is “gender profiling” — a subject dear to the Star’s heart.

Margaret Atwood should stick to her knitting. She’s as present and irritating as David Suzuki, John Ralston Saul, Adrienne Clarkson, Naomi Klein, Stephen Lewis, Justin Trudeau, Peter Mansbridge, Tony Burman, the entire CBC, the Star columnists (communists) and other air-headed luminary “intelligentsia” often enough featured in Toronto Life.

Mel Glickman, Toronto

Gender neutrality and “inclusiveness” does not trump the historical importance of “O Canada.” It is difficult enough to know and appreciate Canadian history without misguided attempts to re-write it.

Canadians have been singing this anthem (men and women) proudly (and sometimes tearfully) for decades. Proposing a change to one of the best — if not the best — anthem in the world, denigrates our history and culture.

I am confident that the vast majority of women in Canada would agree with me. Shame on those who so casually yet blatantly seek to re-write history to suit their narrow self-interest. If they feel so strongly about it then they should write their own unique anthem for Canada and submit it for approval to the Canadian public (good luck with that).

Derek Forward, Burlington

I have another suggestion for the Restore Our Anthem group. Instead of re-wording “O Canada” to make it gender neutral, restore “The Maple Leaf Forever” as Canada’s national anthem.

It was at one time considered our unofficial national anthem, but was understandably unpopular among French Canadians because of its British “colonial days” perspective. But hey, a Romanian-Canadian, Vladimir Radian, came up with a more modern version that is neutral in every sense.

If not for this, let’s do it for the old maple in Toronto that inspired the song. I recall it was destroyed during last summer’s storm. Sad, because it was part of Canada’s heritage.

Alan Pellettier, Scarborough

Does Margaret Atwood’s desire to eliminate the word “sons” from our Canadian anthem mean she will soon want to alter the words: (man)kind, per(son), wo(man), hu(man) and mail per(son), along with the dozens of other words that end with man and son?

Beverlee Rombouts, Peterborough

In a country in which political correctness seems to have run amok, I am always surprised when I see a new manifestation of this disease. Now it’s not just gender or marriage laws that are a “problem” for these people but our national anthem as well.

Until now, singing “in all thy son’s command” seemed quite innocent. Indeed, it’s been done now for almost 100 years now, and by millions of Canadians, some of whom proved their “true patriot love” by giving up their precious gift of life so that their nation might live.

That, however, is not good enough for the Margaret Atwood-led crowd (which includes, ironically former Canadian Progressive Conservative PM Kim Campbell). Nope, it has to be changed. It’s exclusive of women and therefore a disgrace to half our population.

Her suggestion? Change the words to “all of us command,” which is both phonetically and grammatically incorrect. Even my bride thinks it’s ridiculous and hard on her ears.

To add insult to injury, even NDP leader Tom Mulcair, hardly a man to turn his back on a chance to ram political-correctness down anyone’s throat, also denounced any change to either version of the anthem. According to him, “We seem to have agreed on the English and French versions as they are, and I think that’s probably a good thing.”

That, of course, won’t please the group advocating changes. So, how do you please this pack of brainless baboons intent on social engineering? Why not toss “O Canada” out altogether and give us an anthem that everyone can agree on. May I suggest the Anne Murray version of “The Maple Leaf Forever”?

This little ditty is gender neutral and has a reference to Canada’s national agony and passtime, hockey. Modify it a bit more and throw in a Tim Horton’s reference and you might just have a national anthem to please even this pack of crazy people.

Until, of course, they decide that making a reference to hockey is sexist because women are not yet part of the NHL.

Steven Eleftheriadis, North York

Restoring the anthem is long overdue and corrects an egregious wrong continually committed during the steadfast reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Few may realize it was Bob Rae’s premiership in Ontario that led the way in cleansing provincial and federal statutes of patriarchy.

As someone who worked in the trenches at Queen’s Park changing “fireman” to “firefighter,” I am always reminded of Ms Atwood’s line, “Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”

Levi M. Sankar, Thornhill

In deference to everyone trying to make the Canadian national anthem gender neutral and politically correct, I suggest the following lyrics:

“Oh Canada!

Hmm hmm hmm hmmhmm hmm!

Hmm hmmhmmhmm, hmm hmm hmm hmm hmmhmm.

Hmm hmmhmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm,

Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm!

Hmm hmm hmm hmm

Oh Canada, hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm.

Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmmhmmhmm hmm hmm!

Oh Canada, hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm

Oh Canada, hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm.”

This will reflect what most of sing when at baseball and hockey games.

Chris Churchill, Toronto

What a great idea to change “O Canada” lyrics from “in all thy sons command” to “in all our lives command.” I’ve been singing it that way for years. I also sing “our home and gracious land” instead of “our home and native land” since I am not First Nation, and changed “God keep our land” to “abundant land, glorious and free.”

Now the song is inclusive and everyone in Canada can sing it joyfully.

K. Johnson, Burlington

Instead of using old-style language such as “thou” and “dost” in a replacement for “In all thy sons command,” it may be more appropriate to simplify the phrase to “In all of us command.”

Kenneth O’Connor, Brampton

So they want to change the line “in all our sons command” Boy am I embarrassed. I thought the line was “our sons in Vietnam” Man I’m a loser. I say keep the line the same before they come up with something really stupid like “our sons in the Ku Klux Klan.”

Terry Toll, Campbell’s Bay, Que.

Ridiculous. What’s next? “In the name of the Parent, the Child and the Holy Ghost”?